Transparent Source: Ancient Glass from the Archaeological Museum in Dubrovnik

This exhibition is the first ever showing of the glass section of the holdings of the Ancient Collection of the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik Museums.

Intact vessels come on the whole from the old holdings of the Patriotic Museum, as it then was, given to it at the time it was founded, at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. The glass holdings are heterogeneous, suggesting rather a private than an institutional collection; they are divided according to use, into four basic groups: table vessels including vessels for storage and transportation, containers for cosmetics, jewellery and other forms.

The objects were produced by free glassblowing, being coiled around a mould, cast into a mould and with the help of a metal rod. The most common type is the balsamarium of blown glass, and since these objects tend to be complete, they can be assumed to have been grave goods. The material ranges in time from the second half of the 1st century BC to Late Antiquity, that is to the 6th or 7th century AD.

Exhibition created by Liljana Kovačić
Exhibition set up by Rašić+Vrabec